Unique Visitors

Flag Counter

Wednesday 11 October 2017

FACING THE CHALLENGE OF INFIDELITY

He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality (fornication) and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced (for fornication) commits adultery." Matthew 19:8-9.

This write up is inspired by a question someone I know asked me recently. His wife according to him has been promiscuous and virtually shoving it in his face. So he wanted to know what to do. This prompted me to look at the above scripture again.

Before I share my views, may I say that the issue of infidelity are complex so much so that a single line approach at proferring solutions might not suffice. In my opinion every case of infidelity should be handled on a case by case basis.

In the above scripture there are certain principles that clearly stand out which I will like to reiterate. 

The first thing is that it is not the will of God for a man to divorce his wife. I do not need to belabor this statement because it is self  explanatory. God hates divorce period. 

The second principle is that divorce is as a result of the hardness of heart. What did Jesus mean by hardness of heart? I will like to suggest the following:-

1. Hardness of heart connotes a situation where someone is unwilling to bulge in the face of compelling reasons. When someone decides to have his way without regards to how it will affect others, then such a man is hard hearted.

2. Hardness of heart can also connotes an unwillingness to show mercy and compassion. This I am sure is what Jesus was referring to in the above passage. Remember the incident of the woman caught in adultery and she was brought by her accusers to Jesus. What convicted them was the fact that every one of us falls hopelessly short of any righteous standard whether that of God or men. There is no man alive who can boast that he has lived absolutely in tandem with what he knows to be good and right. So Jesus was implying here that before you judge that spouse of us put yourself under God moral x-ray and answer the question whether you too have not erred and you need mercy.

More next

No comments:

Post a Comment